Royal-Royal marriages today

[MAfan]

Third cousins, I remember...Since Charles and Constantine are second cousins.

[jonnydep]

yes via the greek royal family.. they are third cousins. but depending on differant family lines both are cousins of varying degrees.....

[Odette]

Goodness if second cousins were not allowed to marry each other, the royal houses of Europe would have a hard time marrying their children off a generation ago.
However P Theodora and P William both descend from the British, Danish, German and Greek royal families and would be a perfect match for romantics like us...

[MAfan]

But since nothing seems to happen between them, we can ever hope in Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia for Theodora...120 years ago a Prussian wife for a Greek King, now a Greek wife for a Prussian would-be King...

[Odette]

That would be lovely too.
Queen Sofia and Queen Frederika chose Greek spouses.
Then again another royal possible husband would be the Prince of Thurn und Taxis....

[fearghas]

You could consider Princess Theodara of Greece and Denmark as 'Pure' Royal as you have to go back a fair number of generations before you get a non royal ancestor. The first I think would be the Css Lovisa-Sophie Danneskjold-Samsøe, grandmother of the Emperess AugustaViktoria of Germany, grandmother of Princess Frederika of Hanover. That is six generations back.
The problem with this is that Princess Theodara has a lot of descents from a few number of people.
Queen Victoria - 3
King Christian IX of Denmark - 3
If she were matched with any of the Protestant or Orthodox Princes there would be a fair amount of inbreeding, even for my thinking. In many cases it would double the number of descents for their children. Marrying a Catholic Prince would be much better as there would be fewer doubling up of ancestors. My favourite contenders would be in order Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, HGD Guillame of Luxembourg, Archduke Ameado, Prince of Belgium.

Going back a generation who would have been a good match for Queen Margarethe? Prince Michael of Kent?

[Mariel]

I think the children of Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg are among the most attractive young royals. Guillaume is getting married to a lovely looking girl who is not a classic beauty but who radiates charm and presence--they will have great looking children if they are blessed with these. Of course Stephanie is not his "equal" even if a countess, but more equal than a commoner. (I am just getting used to these nomenclatures, as a new member of the Forum). The most beautiful Dutch royal bride whom I have seen is the bride of a nephew of Beatrix, whose wedding is on these pages somewhere. She is not royal.

[Moonmaiden23]

Mariel I agree with you about the children of Maria-Teresa and Henri of Luxembourg. I have only recently "discovered" this beautiful family and can't get enough of them now...they are everything a modern Royal Family should be, imo.

Guillaume's fiancee was made to order for him, his family and for the Grand Duchy.

A linguist with a Master's degree who plays piano and violin(like he does) who seems hardworking and conscientous(just like him) and who is a committed Catholic(just like him).

Whose family was ennobled in the Middle Ages and once ruled parts of Northern France.

It's almost too perfect, to be honest....I simply cannot wait for the wedding.

[Meraude]

Originally Posted by Kotroman

Except for the Swedish princes, who are not allowed to marry other dynasts.

There were and are nothing that forbids a Swedish prince or princess to marry a royal heir or regent, what was not allowed was "må ej, utan Konungens och riksdagens samtycke, bliva regent i utländsk stat, vare sig genom val, arv eller gifte" (Successionsordningen 1810:0926, §8), that is "may not, without the permission of the King and the parliament, becoming regent in a foreign country, be it through election, inheritance or marriage". So if a prince or princess got/gets the permission from the king and the parliament there is nothing that forbids for example Estelle to marry Christian. (Although I don't think the Swedish parliament would give their permission to it, even if the king or crown princess Victoria would agree to such a marriage.)

[Meraude]

Before king Carl Gustaf of Sweden married Silvia Sommerlath there were lots of speculations in Swedish magazines about a possible marriage with either princess Caroline of Monaco or princess Marie Astrid of Luxembourg. As there are nothing that prevents a Swedish monarch to be married to a Catholic there wouldn't have been any serious religious obstacles for such a marriage (except from the pope/Catholic church). I think Caroline would have suited Carl Gustaf when it comes to similar interests, but she was/is eleven years younger than he and I would think that made her a bit too young for him in the early/mid 70:ies. Marie Astrid would have been a better choice as they are closer in age but I think she may have been too serious (and a too pious Catholic) to suit him.

[Moonmaiden23]

Originally Posted by Meraude

Before king Carl Gustaf of Sweden married Silvia Sommerlath there were lots of speculations in Swedish magazines about a possible marriage with either princess Caroline of Monaco or princess Marie Astrid of Luxembourg. As there are nothing that prevents a Swedish monarch to be married to a Catholic there wouldn't have been any serious religious obstacles for such a marriage (except from the pope/Catholic church). I think Caroline would have suited Carl Gustaf when it comes to similar interests, but she was/is eleven years younger than he and I would think that made her a bit too young for him in the early/mid 70:ies. Marie Astrid would have been a better choice as they are closer in age but I think she may have been too serious (and a too pious Catholic) to suit him.

That's about as serious a religious obstacle as there could be, and frankly the only religious obstacle that counts to a Catholic Royal.

Marie-Astrid would probably never have defied her family and the Holy See to marry Carl-Gustav. As for Caroline, who knows?

She might have married CG, but I can't see her converting to Lutheranism..and as eventual Queen of Sweden wouldn't that have been a requirement?

[NGalitzine]

Well the Protestant Astrid of Sweden married the Catholic Leopold of Belgium (Marie Astrids grandfather), and did not convert to Catholicism for several years after her marriage, so it should not have been impossible for a Swedish royal to marry a Roman Catholic. The law likely would have required their children to be Lutheran but I don't believe there is a requirement for the consort to convert.

[Meraude]

Originally Posted by Moonmaiden23

That's about as serious a religious obstacle as there could be, and frankly the only religious obstacle that counts to a Catholic Royal.

Marie-Astrid would probably never have defied her family and the Holy See to marry Carl-Gustav. As for Caroline, who knows?

She might have married CG, but I can't see her converting to Lutheranism..and as eventual Queen of Sweden wouldn't that have been a requirement?

There are no requirements in Sweden for a royal spouse to be Lutheran, it's only the monarch and those in line for the throne that have to be Lutheran. There had already been two Catholic queen consorts in Sweden, Désirée Clary and Joséphine of Leuchtenberg, who was a devoted Catholic. So as long as Marie Astrid or Caroline (and the pope) had agreed to allowing the children born in such a marriage to be brought up as Lutherans, the mother could remain a Catholic.

[Moonmaiden23]

I can see John Paul II or Benedict XVI agreeing(reluctantly) to an arrangement like that, but Paul VI, who was Pope during most of the 70's?

Frankly, no.

Thanks NGalitizine and Meraude!

[amedea]

What did the Pope say in 1823 when Josephine of Leuchtenberg married Oscar of Sweden? Did he agree?

[Noble Consort Ming]

Originally Posted by amedea

What did the Pope say in 1823 when Josephine of Leuchtenberg married Oscar of Sweden? Did he agree?

Josephine remained Catholic while agreeing to raise her children as Lutherans. Wikipedia says the pope gave his consent to this but I don't know how accurate the info is.

[MAfan]

Is it possible that the Pope agreed that her sons would be raised Lutherans and her daughters Catholic? It seems that this was the usual policy followed by the Pope(s) about the marriages of (royal) Catholic women to non-Catholic men; an example of it is the marriage of Prince Waldemar of Denmark to the Catholic Princess Marie of Orleans.

[SLV]

Would the pope have any say in this at all. Why would they as him?

[amedea]

Originally Posted by MAfan

Is it possible that the Pope agreed that her sons would be raised Lutherans and her daughters Catholic? It seems that this was the usual policy followed by the Pope(s) about the marriages of (royal) Catholic women to non-Catholic men; an example of it is the marriage of Prince Waldemar of Denmark to the Catholic Princess Marie of Orleans.

Still, that kind of agreement was not considered ok for Anne Marie of Bourbon-Parma (marrying Michael of Romania) and for Giovanna of Savoy (marrying Boris of Bulgaria).

[MAfan]

In the case of Boris and Giovanna of Bulgaria, the agreement was that the children would be raised Catholic; but instead when their two children were born they were baptized in the Orthodox faith, and it seems that this caused much anger in the Vatican.
As for Michael and Anne of Romania, the Pope refused to consent their marriage unless Michael promised that their children would be raised Catholic; Michael refused to make such a promise, because it would have been in breach of the Romanian law, so Pope didn't allow the marriage. Michael and Anne eventually decided to marry, and they did in an Orthodox ceremony.